Hi Gunar
Thanks for your, as usual extremely informative, answer but what I'm after is what small arms a German infantry (Heer, Fallschirmjaeger, etc.)squad (or as I'm British - section) possessed. So for instance how many G43, Stg44 were used by an infantry squad in late '44 early '45 on the Western front and was the FG42 still in use with Fallschirmjaeger units?
Regards
Tim
It's Gun
Nar !
Anyway, I skipped to your post and overlooked the topic and was kinda puzzled when I wrote my reply, but there it is, you asked for the weapon mix, indeed.
I can check my KStN sheets to see if I can find the exact "required" numbers, if I have some spare time.
The FG42 was produced in rather low numbers (~7500 pieces) and could be used as sniper rifle (scope), light machine gun (with bipod), close combat weapon (bajonet) and as grenade launcher (30 mm rifle grenade). It was first used on September 12, 1943, during the Gran Sasso raid (Unternehmen Eiche = "Operation Oak") to rescue Mussolini, where not even a single live bullet had to be fired, as General Soleti had ordered to make no resistance, and it was produced until the end of the war.
During the landings on Crete in 1941, German paras had relatively high amounts of MP38's at their disposal, many sources state that every 4th paratrooper (= 25% of the troops) was equipped with a MP40 and that every 8th or 12th para was supposed to carry a MG34 machine gun. In a way, the FG42 - used later on - was misused, as the FG was often used like a MG34 or MG42, means for suppression, even though its envisioned main purpose was to serve as some sort of early assault rifle, a role filled by the StG 44, eventually.
For instance, it was pretty dangerous to fire an MP38 (or MP40) behind cover (say a barrier, mound, etc.), as the soldier had to lift the gun (thus the head) in order not to hit the ground/barrier with the gun's relatively long magazine. A few manufacturers produced a couple of prototypes (modifications of the MP40 or new designs) and experimented with 10-rounds mags, which allowed for a lower profile in firing position, but none of these projects materialized. The FG42 filled the gap, with its short magazine (10 or 20 rounds) and low profile and offered a way more concealed deployment, even when the bipod was mounted.
The production numbers of the G43, influenced by the Russian semi-automatic rifles, and envisioned to counter the Russian - and later on the US - firepower (regarding semi- or full-auto weapons) in the field, were relatively low, if compared to the numbers of the K 98 rifle:
For instance,
- 1,922,482 K 98 were produced in 1944 and
- 347,052 in 1945, while only
- 277,862 G43 were produced in 1944 and
- 68,207 in 1945 (3,209 in 1943, when the production began).
- The scoped version, the G43 ZF, was in even shorter supply, only
- 21,936 and 31,499 units were produced in 1944 and 1945, respectively.
Around 424,000
StG 44 were produced. Looking at this number, it's quite clear that the StG could not be issued to every Infantry unit. The newly formed Volksgrenadier-Divisions were earmarked to receive a good share of the new assault rifles, either based on a decision by Himmler or an intervention by Goebbels. The required organization looked pretty much like this (only listing the most vital elements):
3 Grenadier-Regiments, with
- 2 Bns per Regiment.
- Each Bn had 3 rifle coys and
- one heavy coy (8 HMG, 6 medium mortars, 4 light inf guns) and
- one "tank destroyer" coy, means an AT coy equipped with 72 Panzerschrecks, where 18 of these were reserve Panzerschrecks and
- one inf gun coy with 4 light inf guns und 8 heavy mortars,
- one Divisional "Füsilier" Coy, basically the divisional recon element, but equipped like a Grenadier Coy and mounted on bikes (the Füsilier elements - which started to replace the Recon Bns ~1943 - had a dual role, an infantry and a recon role).
- Each line coy had 9 light MGs and 2 platoons were fully equipped with StG 44 assault rifles.
Due to the fact, that the required strength of a Volksgrenadier-Division was lower than the strength of a regular Inf Div, the Germans tried to compensate the lack of seasoned NCOs, training and manpower, with more firepower, so the Volksgrenadier-Divisions were given priority when it came to deliveries of StG 44 or Panzerschrecks, and partially of G43, afaik. Also, the level of indoctrination in these units was pretty high, which means that the focus was put on ideological guidance rather than military training, as the Nazis thought that this would up tenacity and cohesion. In summary it can be said, that the losses among these units were particularly high, despite the higher firepower and lean supply organization (the coy supply columns were combined to Bn level platoons, which took pressure from the quartermasters).
Veterans of regular Inf units reported that they received some StG 44's too, along with white winter camo suits, same with SS vets, though, especially right before the Battle of the Bulge, and it's not quite clear if such resupplies were down to luck, local "organizers" or planned outfits.
At the end of 1944, there was a serious shortage of rifles (carbines, all branches, afaik, not sure about the Waffen-SS, as quite some SS units had to use captured rifles early in the war, already, which forced them to build up their own production facilities), because more than 1 million carbines were lost during the 1st half of 1944, so that the Germans were forced to issue captured rifles like the Russian
Gewehr 91/30 (G. 254(r)), the Italian
Gewehr Fucile Modello 41 (G. 210(i)), the French
Lebel-Gewehr (K. 551(f)) based on the original Lebel from 1886 (!) and the Danish
Gewehr 98 (G. 311(d)) - a bulky rifle, as its length amounted to 1330 mm.
These are the original German designations used for those captured weapons.
I am guessing that the captured Lebel rifles weren't the original Lebels from 1886, so some might have been 1886/93 rifles, a (somewhat) improved version, which was still pretty outdated, but still used by some units in 1940, and where the final modification was produced by the French between 1935-1940 and designated
Lebel Mle. 1886 M93R35. Only 50,000 of these rifles were actually produced until 1940, as replacing their outdated main carbine was not on the priority list of the French Army.
Until 1944, the Germans had captured 11,530,142 rifles/carbines from/in various countries.
That's it for now.
